22 comments:

neil m berg
said...

Kossack,I like the tail light a lot. It looks more classic than Bruce Gordon's rocketship look. You're getting really close on the rack. Any thought of doing both a sidepull and canti version? I suppose Nitto has the cantis covered.

I'm looking into a very nice stainless steel canti-rack that looks a lot like the Nitto. These are also made in Asia and the price is great. It seems like a better way to go than a canti version of this rack. But they want us to buy a container load, well almost.

Will you be posting some dimensions? I need a front rack which will mount to the low-rider-style mounts on my front fork. It *looks* like your rack is going to mount too high on the fork for me. I think the Berthoud would probably work. I like yours better, but not with p-clamps

Nice use of the bar-end light.I have one in the moustache barend of the Kogswell P that is not wired with a taillight, but it's in the right barend, which is not ideal because it's not as visible from behind as, say, the left barend (occupied by the reverse brake lever), and I've always liked the ambiguous nature of a taillight mounted where one would be mounted on a scooter or moped: if you look like a scooter, you're more likely to be treated like said.So in that sense I think the mounting to the dropout bosses is a brilliant idea. It looks elegant too, not all plastic and funky mounting hardware.

I really like the rear light idea but wish it could be refined just a wee bit, ala the (now defunct?) Sogreni light. In particular, I don't care so much for the assymetrical flare tab. Still, it's great thinking and, once they're available, I'll almost certainly make the purchase.

Do you know if anyone in asia makes an attractive headlamp mount that mounts to the side of a front rack? Or would one have to buy a rack with a brazed on mount, like the one Araya uses? It would be great if someone were to sell something that would work with any of these racks, perhaps small section of stainless tube nice curved with appropriate fixtures on both ends . Or one could just buy another B&M handlebar mount and not bother with another bit of unnecessary fanciness tha is likely to get damaged.

Do you have a photo of this fender mounted lamp? If I can figure out how to fabricate a fender mount for the rivendell rack I'd like to use a headlamp up front, it looks a bit empty with the long 650B fender and no 2nd stay or headlamp ahread of the rack.

Great job! Is there any way to have a variant of the rack made up that bolts on to the centerpull brake studs (rather than using the tab that slips between the fender and the fork crown)? I personally think that type of rack is particularly fetching. /djd

Like Nate, I'm looking for a front bag support that mounts to mid-fork lowrider brazeons. I'm not sure what the top mount would be (I have single-pivot sidepulls). Ideally it would probably be aluminum since I don't need much load capacity--I just want to carry 10 pounds.

By B&M retro, do you mean this headlamp on the Wanderer Wanderer uses, which I believe is round B&M headlamp fitted inside an aluminium shell? It would be about the right size to be mounted on a fender.

The issue of fitting various rack mounts doesn't seen that hard. The diagonal would have to be on a pivot at the top and the fork mount would would have to be a clamping device, similar to the top adjustment on a Nitto rear rack. Note, I'm not talking p-clamps, but something that mounts either to brake studs or existing braze-ons. The struts would have to be over-length and be cut to size, but that's not really an issue for this group. Incidently, the photo backgrounds are...well, fetching.

I too am one searching for a front rack that would utilize the low rider rack mount holes on the fork. To me a P-clamp makes the rack look like an after-thought and temporary. As another post said, it seems logical to build a rack with extra-long struts and a pivot mount on the rack. Since nobody seems able to supply a rack of this nature I may spring the big bucks and have one custom made for my 83 Expedition.

We may try to build a rack with adjustable struts, but right now we have four models of racks we are trying to get produced so R&D expenditures are high. In addition we are looking at importing two models of very nice, but inexpensive, racks that I don't think have been sold in the US.

Plus, my head will explode if I do any more racks.

I agree that P-clamps are not ideal, but for many older racing bikes they are the only solution. If you paint the P-clamps to match the fork,they look a lot better.

Hi Chris. Emailed you on the @velo-orange.com account. The Lumotec Retro Plus 1706CNDi is the light for me. Retro styling, switched, standlight, famous B&M optics. That would just light up my life. Cheers!